


Navigator

by Wingstar102



Category: NCIS
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-01
Updated: 2013-03-01
Packaged: 2017-12-03 23:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wingstar102/pseuds/Wingstar102
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gibbs is surprised by something his Agent does. And amused.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Navigator

**Author's Note:**

> The math is probably wrong, but it was written just to prove that you can use a math formula as a plot point. Enjoy!

~~~  
  
“Wait. What?” Even as Gibbs raised his voice to be heard over the sound of the boat’s loud motor and the ocean chop, he shot a quick glance to McGee for a response. Must be something important if McGee was brave enough to interrupt Gibbs trying to relocate the suspect they’d lost sight of on the tossing, storm-churned sea.  
  
“I can find him!” McGee’s shout, close to his ear but not as loud as Gibbs’ own well cultivated bark, was still almost carried away by the screaming rush of the wind. “Give me a second!”  
  
Another fast glance at his Agent and a nod, and McGee was pulling out a small pad of paper with a pencil. More back and forth between looking at the seemingly endless water and McGee’s notepad didn’t really tell him how McGee was going to figure out where to go. Only thing Gibbs saw was a lot of numbers quickly scribbled down and a whole bunch more ‘X’s. True to form though, McGee only took a couple of seconds to figure the whole mess out between his head and the paper before pointing twenty degrees further North than they were heading. “We’ll run smack into him going that way!”  
  
“Sure?” Not that Gibbs doubted his Agent, but sometimes it didn’t hurt to double check that McGee was sure. Man had a bad habit, that Gibbs couldn’t seem to break him of, of second-guessing himself.  
  
But the younger man just nodded firmly and pointed off to their left again. Who was Gibbs to argue? Especially when his gut and Marine training were screaming basically the same thing as McGee’s numbers. Turning the wheel on their boat, he oriented on their new direction and hammered down the throttle, now very certain they would catch their bad guy.  
  
Didn’t take long to prove right either. A couple of minutes had them almost running straight into the bow of the speed boat that the guy had stolen for his getaway, and only another couples of minutes in total to draw down, lash the crafts together and talk the man into surrender, not necessarily in that order.  
  
The uneventful ride back to land was very quiet, giving Gibbs time to think about how in the hell McGee had pulled that bit of math out of his ass. Couldn’t really ask about it until they, and their suspect, were on land. Once they’d gotten the suspect off the boat and handed over to the MPs for proper transportation back to the Yard, Gibbs pulled McGee towards the Agency’s shiny black sedan. “Ok, I gotta know. What was that?”  
  
“What was what, Boss?” And the innocent look wasn’t really fooling Gibbs for a second.  
  
“That calculus level problem you pulled out of nowhere to find our guy.”  
  
Tim chuckled, embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head to gather himself. “Nothing much. Just something I learned in college a long time ago. Same thing pilots use to figure out flight lines and stuff when the instruments are on the fritz. Just had to adapt it is all.”  
  
“Adapt it how?”  
  
The disbelief conveyed by those sharp blue eyes had him rushing to explain. “Usually, it’s used with all the axes accounted for and perpendicular to the ground. Just had to work it parallel instead and assume the distance of the bottom of the bay for the X-axis figure as oppose to the Y. Pretty basic really.”  
  
“Basic.” That one incredulous word from him said it all, but it seemed like a good equation to know you he decided to ask.. “Most complicated math problems got a name. What’s this one called?”  
  
“Promise you won’t laugh?” McGee waited for the nod he knew he would get before answering. “It’s called a Gibbs’ vector product.”  
  
“You’re joking.” But then, Gibbs knew for a fact that McGee didn’t joke about his information. Instead, he snorted softly to himself, amused in a way he could really define, and clapped his Agent on the shoulder. “I’ve heard of stranger things.”  
  
Climbing quickly into their ride, Tim laughed.

~~~

End.


End file.
